Something changed, though what that something was supposed to be...well, for one, my mentality seemed to shift somehow. Lady had that puzzled expression I hadn't seen in a while, too. Or maybe that was just the sudden burst of a wild fiddle solo? 

Maybe an update? Server problems?

I turned my head towards the music player that had started from the first track recorded in the crystal. The shift from calming bard music to irish folk was surprising enough for me to wonder if that might really have been all that happened. Unlike before I now saw runes glowing beneath the surface of both player and crystal. It felt familiar, as if it were something I had been able to do for quite a while. Despite the fact that it was clearly new. I could easily discern the function of those runes, too. They were so familiar I did not immediately realize that it was not just common english. 

"What the..." Lady whispered. Her voice had become a clearly inhuman, but not unpleasant smoky voice. And it spoke a language that my brain told me was commonly referred to as night tongue. A language I had apparently learned by essentialy growing up with lady. There was also Merchant Common, the variation known as high tongue that nobles spoke, ancient runic and the sun tongue. All languages for which I had fulfilled the requirements or so my brain told me.

"What kind of update is this?" I wondered out loud, my voice an equally smoky but higher one than Lady's. 

Lady did not listen however, she was busy staring at the space above my head. Turning around only gave me a glimpse of faintly glowing palace walls and the glass door to the terrace, all filled with enchantments but otherwise normal. The sky outside was blue as usual. 

"Your ID is gone. And the status window does not work either." Lady informed me, already busy pulling out her herb bag. Her relieved expression showed that she could access her items at least. 

Logout did not work though.

This game had no message function, but we had solved that problem ages ago. I activated the enchanted crystal hanging off the tip of my left ear, which worked easily on instinct, calling Cassandra. Our resident vampire lord, a player who had been playing just as long as us. She didn't pick up. Asleep? 

"Donny!" Lady sat up straighter at about the same time, so I linked my earring to her conversation. I wished I didn't a moment later.

"...whore started moving on her own! Yeah baby..." 

Both of us shut down the conversation. Using the virtual whores was pretty common and judging by the fragment we had heard it was obvious that the command based NPC had very recently become more than she had been before.

Taking a deep breath I leaned back in my armchair, picked up my cup again and took a sip. It tasted a lot better than any iced tea I had ever had before. Lady raised her eyebrows at my expression, took her own cup and tried it.

"Being an Alchemist seems to have certain perks." She concluded. 

By now we were probably both sufficiently convinced that this was reality. Honestly...well. I was a project manager and programmer, with my bachelor in computer sciences and an MBA in the real world. Lady was a PhD Candidate in a Biochemical Science lab, with bachelors in medical science and chemistry. In other words...neither of us had much of a life aside from work and this game. Our parents and siblings...well, my father had been her godfather so after her parents died in a car crash we became like siblings. But with my parents split up, each with a new family and new children...maybe that had been one reason why we had clung to each other and this game so much.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As long as there were both of us it was going to be fine. Were weren't kids anymore.  

Just then there was a knock outside the door.

"Your breakfast, Lady Vivienne, Lady Aurelie." It was a young girl's voice. My mind returned to Donny's whore. If the whores had life then the servants apparently did as well. And those names...they were not our game names. They were our real names. Well, being called Massa Lady and Sunflower in real life would be silly, but...how exactly did this change work?

"Come in!" Lady, no Aurelie responded quicker than I did.

A moment after her call a young girl, apparently a high elf like me with the golden skin, sharp eyes and pointy chin, long sleek ears pointing straight up and general sharp edges everywhere in her features entered the room. She wore the green livery all the servants had. Of course hers had an ankle length skirt since she was female instead of the pants the males got. 

She carried a tray with rice pudding, honey and two bowls along with silver spoons. The food we often plundered but never used, sorted by type in the storage pouches in the kitchen's storage rooms, had finally been used. How many tons were stored in the palace? Every time we stole everything from the enemy's supply trains it all ended up there, while our thief players liked stealing rare foodstuff, among other things, from lords...so at least if we actually had to eat now we probably had enough for the near future. The siloes were also full of grain and there were a lot of fields around the palace, though that had been done to make the palace seem realistic...same as the servants. 

"Thank you." I nodded at the girl with a smile, to which she smiled back and bowed before she set herself up beside the door, apparently waiting for us to finish.

"How many people do you think came with us? And how much of the territory?" I wondered out loud. Aurelie did not bother with speculation, she directly called Guardian.

Guardian picked up, too.

"Ladies! Fear not! I will guard you to the end!!" Er...yes. Guardian was into roleplay. Apparently not even being transported to a different world could heal that side of him. So we did what we always had. We played along.

"Thank you Guardian, we appreciate it." I responded as usual.

"Would you do us a favor Guardian?" Aurelie hurried to get to the point before Guardian could start going into a long winded speech about protecting us being an honor. "Please check whether our territory is still there and if so in which way it has changed."

"Ah, I already looked. It's all there apparently, at least according to the main territory crystal. The air guard is about to take off to take a look in person, too." Guardian had not been panicking then. And he was not unaware either.

Then again, most of the guild consisted of game addicts who would love to live in the game. Not that Aurelie or me had any right to say a thing.

I decided to add my piece of mind, as well. "There are wild animals and creatures in the wild...they might go to the villages now that the rules have changed. Please look out for signs of such things, not just external enemies or the unknown. If there are signs as I fear there might be we would need to station fighters in the villages for a while. I'm sure I will be able to create some protection if Aurelie helps and your men can supply enough essence."

"Uh...never thought of that, mylady! I'll tell the boys." Guardian agreed thoughtfully. NPCs had apparently turned into our people now so we would have to care for them. Since this was a game with rudimentary NPC programming there would surely be things where problems would pop up left and right in reality.

"Thank you Guardian." Aurelie said, then cut off the connection. 

Thoughtfully, she looked at the girl while I filled two bowls with rice pudding and a bit of honey. It tasted rather good. But where did they get the...ah! I had almost forgotten about the large animal farm Donny had been obsessed with years ago. 

"Little one, tell me. Can you read? Do you have any skills?" Aurelia's smoky voice was truly something I would have to get used to.

"Lady, no, Lady. This servant has no skills. This servant has started learning how to clean and is being taught manners." The girl responded, her chest swelling slightly at that. Did that count as a skill? Well, manners was part of the ruler skill tree, but I doubted this servant girl would be studying the rest of that particular skill tree. 

"I see." Aurelie seemed intent on dropping this topic for the moment, but I doubted that I had heard the last of this particular problem. As a PhD Candidate my adopted sister regarded education highly. Maybe this would be her passion in this new world?

We ate our breakfast in silence and had the girl take it back to the kitchen in the end. Then we did what we had to after a night full of celebration and excitement. We went to sleep in our rooms.